n  “Jack, I swear —” he said, though Jack had never asked him to swear anything and was himself not the swearing kind.n

Not a single word is wasted in this very short Annie Proulx story. It has the weight of a novel, with every word so carefully chosen, with every deceptively simple sentence packing an unexpected punch.

It’s a story of love punctuated by the weight of fear, longing that never gets rewarded, crushing loneliness that is meant to stay, and the price of denial of your needs. It’s the story of regret, the one that comes when it’s too late.

I can say it’s heartbreaking, but it’s actually way more subtle than that. It doesn’t as much break your heart - from the beginning you know there is no happy ending here - but instead makes it ache in a raw, haunting way.

n  “There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it.”n  
n  
n  n

Two young men in working-class rural 1960s America where living life together in the open could have had dire consequences. And one of them was unwilling to take that risk. And so they carried out their affair in stolen minutes and days here and there over two decades — “One thing never changed: the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by the sense of time flying, never enough time, never enough.”

And it’s a protracted gut punch.

n  “Try this one,” said Jack, “and I’ll say it just one time. Tell you what, we could a had a good life together, a fuckin real good life. You wouldn’t do it, Ennis, so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain. Everything built on that. It’s all we got, boy, fuckin all, so I hope you know that if you don’t never know the rest. Count the damn few times we been together in twenty years. Measure the fuckin short leash you keep me on, then ask me about Mexico and then tell me you’ll kill me for needin it and not hardly never gettin it. You got no fuckin idea how bad it gets. I’m not you. I can’t make it on a couple a high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. You’re too much for me, Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you.”n

So sad, but such a well-written utterly devastating story. Those two shirts on a wire hanger — that’s the image that will always stay in my mind. The price of prejudice, denial and regret. And love.

n  n

5 stars.
________
A link to the pdf version of this story: https://www.taosmemory.com/oscar/Brok...

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Also posted on my blog.

This felt way too rushed as a short story and I didn't really get time to love the characters. The idea is definitely good, but I just wish it was more fleshed out.

Late to the party but I when I did get there I sure as heck enjoyed myself

This book was given to me by a friend who said I cant believe you have never read this or at least seen the movie. Well I hadn't and at 60 pages this short novela has a lot to say and really does pack quite a punch.

Originally published in The New Yorker in 1997 for which it won the National Magazine Award for fiction 1998.

In 1963 two young men Ennis del Mar and Jack Twish are hired for the summer to look after sheep at a seasonal grazing range on the fictional Brokeback mountain in Wyoming where they form a relationship that emotionally attaches them for the rest of their lives.

Terrific storytelling in so few pages and the emotion I felt while reading it really did surprise me. The author's writing and understanding of the characters really makes this story what it is, strong and sympathic characters make for great stories and I really found a lot of emotion in this little novel. A timeless story that that made me think, great character development and writing.

The one thing I did realise when finishing the novel is I DONT want to see the movie as I think the book works very well and while the movie may be great I dont want it to spoil my first impressions on reading this novel as even the actors playing the books characters are way too cute for the characters described in the book.

I really think a book group would get a great discussion from this one.

The book is better than the movie, but the actors are super than the words.

Oh, my goodness... What a beautiful and heart-wrenching story! I haven't seen the movie. This book is beautifully written and draws you into these lives so quickly.. I felt as if I had known the characters forever! A true work of art!

Masterful storytelling that I never want to read again.

The phonetic dialogue tripped me up at the beginning, but I adjusted. Might have been better if it could have insulated me emotionally. I was sure that a 10K-word short couldn't possibly gut me as badly as the movie did.

I was wrong.

4 Stars


n  If you can't fix it you’ve got to stand it...n

Heartbreaking and no less powerful for its 50 sparse pages.

n  Late in the afternoon, thunder growling, that same old green pickup rolled in and he saw Jack get out of the truck, beat up Resistol tilted back. A hot jolt scalded Ennis and he was out on the landing pulling the door closed behind him. Jack took the stairs two and two. They seized each other by the shoulders, hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then, and easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together, and hard, Jack’s big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis’s straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other’s toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and his daughters, little darlin.” n

Who’d have known this special movie was based on a short story? Obviously I am late to the party, a common theme with me, but I had no idea. I watched the movie years ago and loved it, and only just realised my work library held the audio CD. I grabbed it quick smart. Excellent and quality narration by Campbell Scott, this is a love story that is never fully realised by our two leading men.

Meeting in summertime, 1960’s, Ennis and Jack meet as ranch hands, their physical attraction immediate. Something catches these two men and summer after summer they try to grab back what they felt that first time. Both marry, and carry on with lives that lack lustre when apart, both joining again for snatches of time in the years to come.

Brutally honest writing as seen in the above excerpt, it is such succinct writing where ridiculous amount of depth is packed into something so small in volume, but so large in everything else.

I loved the scene where two work shirts joined together, unwashed sitting inside each other is a metaphor for a forever love, joined together, never to be parted.

n  "If you can't fix it, you have to stand it".n

I loved it, can you tell?

These guys went from 0 to 100 real quick. I guess that's because this was a short story and not a full length novel. In this rare case the movie is somehow longer (1 hour audiobook vs 2 hour movie). I did see it years ago and it was definitely a bit more subtle in regards to the first interaction between the main characters.

This story is more about not being able to live the life you want than a gay relationship. It's about society's norms and families' expectations. It's about putting your needs and happiness on the back burner to satisfy others. Even worse, it's also about regret and taking time for granted. Regardless of sexual orientation, I think everyone will have an emotional response from it. Truly moving for such a short story.

Maybe a 3.5? This was just far too rushed to get the emotional impact of the story.

What a quick read! So frustrating that their love is really still not accepted or understood by society.

This short story is about the choices we make, and the consequences we have to live with.

I haven't watched 'Brokeback Mountain', though I've been meaning to for years now. I'm not a big movie-watcher, so it always gets pushed back. But I am a big reader, so I thought I might as well read the short story that inspired the movie.


Ennis and Jack's romance isn't pretty. It's a reflection of the time and place they were living in. The two are mean to each other, and to the women they married. Yet they're also sweet in their love for each other, and you can't help but root for them. The inevitable end was gut-wrenching.

If you're looking for a quick dose of angst, 'Brokeback Mountain' is a good bet.